Archaeologist Increase Lapham writes home from the field.

Selected letters on Indian mounds, 1846-1852

Lapham composed these 19 letters between 1846 and 1852, while researching and writing his book, The Antiquities of Wisconsin (also available through the Turning Points site). Some of these letters are to his sponsors and publishers and others to colleagues and informants, but the best are those he sent home to his wife in the summer of 1850, while actually in the field investigating mounds. Scattered throughout the correspondence are drawings and sketches of mounds and other natural features. To see a typed version of any of these handwritten letters, click the "Page & Text" button at the upper right. We are grateful to Rob Nurre, of Wisconsin's Office of the Commissioners of Public Lands (and an expert on Lapham's career), for transcribing and interpreting these letters.